MPC completes sale of St. Georges Exchange

 

The MSE Equity Price Index increased by 0.12% to 3,875.288 points as the gains in BOV, Malita, MPC and Plaza outweighed the decline in BMIT. Meanwhile, four other equities closed unchanged as overall trading activity amounted to €0.17 million. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

Malta Properties Company plc was today’s best performing equity as it surged by 3.8% to the €0.55 level on two trades totalling 2,500 shares. This afternoon, Malta Properties announced that the final deed of sale in relation to the Saint George’s Exchange in St. Julian’s was executed for a total consideration of €14 million.

Also in the property segment, Malita Investments plc climbed 3.1% to the €0.83 level on two deals totalling 93,000 shares.

Plaza Centres plc added 1.1% to the €0.90 level on a single trade totalling 20,000 shares.

Elsewhere, Bank of Valletta plc edged 0.6% higher to the €0.90 level on four trades totalling 27,375 shares.

Meanwhile, BMIT Technologies plc lost 1.2% to the €0.49 level on two deals totalling 27,897 shares. Last week, BMIT published its interim results showing record performance on the back of higher demand for cloud services and managed services.

BMIT’s parent company, GO plc traded flat at the €3.44 level on four deals totalling 5,400 shares. On Monday, GO published its interim financial results covering the six-month period ended 30 June 2021. Revenues increased by 2.5% to a record (at interim stage) of €93.9 million compared to €91.6 million in the previous comparable period, reflecting the increased business activity by its subsidiaries Cablenet Communication Systems plc and BMIT Technologies plc. Due to a higher level of expenses, EBITDA eased by 1.9% to €34.8 million which, in turn, translates into an EBITDA margin of 37.1%. For the first time since 2007, the Board of Directors of GO elected to distribute a net interim dividend of €0.07 per share to all shareholders as at close of trading on 16 August 2021.

Similarly, three deals of 2,416 shares left the preference shares of RS2 Software plc unchanged at the €1.80 level, after recovering from an intraday low of €1.78 (-1.1%). RS2 is expected to publish its interim results on 17 August 2021.

International Hotel Investments plc traded flat at the €0.65 level on five trades totalling 7,454 shares.

Two deals of 2,870 left Harvest Technology plc unchanged at the €1.55 level.

The RF MGS Index eased by 0.04% to 1,104.981 points. The US Producer Price Index (‘PPI’) in July was 7.8% higher than a year ago, exceeding market expectations. Meanwhile, the UK’s GDP increased by 4.8% during the second quarter, recovering from a 1.6% contraction in the previous three months. As such, the level of GDP remains 4.4% below pre-pandemic levels.